You're absolutely certain Russia blew it's wad in a Special Military Operation (not war), when every keyboard military analyst knew this could turn into total war?
Would they not pull some punches incase NATO joins in for real?
Now why not wait until the full pain of winter starts to cause Europe to eat itself and fracture? Then march your retrained 1% (maybe even 2% for the hell of it) of your army into a Ukraine that cannot secure any fuel, reliable power, ammo, loans, hell even blankets or tents.
While they wait for winter, just monitor any troop / equipment movement via their mostly electric railway system (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrain...ultiple_units), and turn the power off when Ukraine tries to move.
The flip side of the Russia surrounds Kyiv story, which I'm sure you're aware is also a possibility: Russia had Kyiv surrounded, and began encouraging negotiations prior to Boris Johnson's surprise April visit. The negotiations were going so well that Russia pulled its forces back from Kyiv as a show of good will. Then Ukraine revised the negotiation terms and the whole thing was called off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_R...0% 9330_March
Which one is true? Reuters/Pentagon will say Ukraine fought Russia back, RT/Kremlin will say Russia is a big cuddly bear and collective West has convinced Ukraine it can win because we've got your back with all these flag emojis.